Chart of the Day: Shenzhen Overtakes Hong Kong

Four decades ago it was a fishing village — but today the Guangdong province metropolis of Shenzhen has grown to be worth 2.42 trillion yuan ($363.6 billion), making it a whisker bigger than the neighboring trade port of Hong Kong.

Hong Kong has been hit hard by the U.S.-China trade war, and saw its gross domestic product grow 3% to HK$2.85 trillion ($363 billion) last year, according to the annual budget revealed by Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po on Wednesday.

Hong Kong's Census and Statistics Department put the exchange rate for the year at HK$1.1855 to the yuan. By that measure the city’s economy was worth 2.40 trillion yuan, 22.1 billion yuan less than Shenzhen.

Chan said brewing trade tensions had weakened global growth in the second half last year. “External pressures” caused Hong Kong’s economy to grow 1.3% last quarter, its slowest pace since 2016, and outbound shipments declined 0.2% for the same period.

Meanwhile in Shenzhen, output from companies with annual revenue of 20 million yuan or more from their main business operations rose by 9.5% to 911 billion yuan in 2018, led by advanced and high-tech manufacturing.